(Paris) Iranian authorities have executed 55 people so far in 2023, a human rights NGO said on Friday, adding that the growing use of the death penalty was aimed at spreading “terror” in the shaken country. through demonstrations.
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it confirmed at least 55 executions in the first 26 days of the year. Four people were executed for protest-related charges, while the majority of those hanged (37 on death row) were executed for drug-related offences, according to the same source.
The NGO did not specify the reason for which the 14 other prisoners sentenced to death were executed.
At least 107 people remain at risk of execution as a result of the protests, having been sentenced to death or charged with crimes carrying the death penalty, the IHR added.
“Every execution by the Islamic Republic is political”, because the main purpose “is to spread fear and terror in society”, she stressed.
“To stop the killing machine of the state, no execution should be tolerated, whether political or not,” added IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
Activists have accused Iran of using the death penalty as an instrument of intimidation to quell uninterrupted protests since September 16, after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested three days earlier for Violation of the dress code for women.
In the eyes of UN human rights chief Volker Turk, Iran’s “instrumentalization of criminal proceedings” to punish protesters “amounts to state-sanctioned murder”.
The IHR and other human rights NGOs have yet to release statistics on Iran’s executions for 2022. But the IHR reported in early December that more than 500 people had been hanged since then, a record number. since five years.